Children and firearms in Turkish homes.

BACKGROUND: Unintentional firearm injuries are an important cause of preventable deaths and disabilities among children. Keeping firearms at home and letting children to see or touch them increases the risk of injury. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted to estimate the extent of the firearm problem in an Anatolian province in Turkey. A random sample of families were approached and were asked to answer a series of questions completed by research assistants. RESULTS: In 974 randomly selected households, there were 2129 children aged less than 18 years, 11.1% of the fathers have a job in the firearms industry or in the security sector, and 12.3% of the households kept a firearm at home. Only 25.6% of the firearms were kept in a safe place, and 29.3% of the firearms and ammunition were kept separately. Overall, 70.9% of the children whose parents have firearms saw the firearm and 27.2% had handled it. CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study pointed to the urgent need for preventive measures for the physical separation of guns from children. The establishment of effective firearms safety programmes requires an understanding of the culture and routine behaviours of the target population.

A case of Maffucci 's syndrome with pleural effusion: ten-year follow-up.

INTRODUCTION: Maffucci 's syndrome (MS) is a congenital non-hereditary mesodermal dysplasia characterised by numerous mesenchymal neoplasias in the form of enchondromas with secondary bone deformities and multiple soft tissue haemangiomas that may have phlebolitis. CLINICAL PICTURE: A 23-year-old male patient presented with non-productive cough, dyspnoea, chest pain and back pain. Chest X-ray showed unilateral pleural effusion and multiple enchondromas of the ribs. On physical examination, there were mobile, multiple, bluish-coloured lesions probably cavernous haemangiomas on bilateral chest walls. In addition, there were multiple nodular lesions on the extremities especially accumulated on the fingers. The patient was diagnosed as Maffucci 's syndrome according to computed tomography (CT) of the thorax, conventional radiography of the skeletal system, magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, Th4-Th11 intercostal and right upper extremity angiography and physical examination findings. TREATMENT: As the patient rejected any diagnostic intervention, he was monitored with CT. OUTCOME: During the last 6 years of follow-up, the lesion that was detected on the rib adjacent to the basal segments of the left lung showed significant progression and was accepted as chondrosarcoma. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first case of Maffucci ' s syndrome with pleural effusion. In this case report, the probable mechanism of pleural effusion was discussed.

Serum free carnitine and total triglycerid levels in children with iron deficiency anemia.

Iron deficiency anemia and hyperlipidemia are common public health problems in Turkey. The connection between iron and lipid metabolisms has not been clarified yet. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of iron deficiency on carnitine and lipid metabolism. Study group was consisted of 70 children (mean age 14.7 +/- 1.3 months) suffering from iron deficiency anemia and 20 healthy children (mean age 13.7 +/- 1.2 months) attended to outpatient clinics of Cumhuriyet University, Sivas were enrolled the study as the control group. Assessments of serum free carnitine concentrations, total triglyceride, total cholesterol and VLDL levels were made in both groups. The mean serum free carnitine concentration was significantly lower than the control group (18.9 +/- 0.43 nmol/ml and 45.9 +/- 1.47 nmol/ml respectively, t = 17.5 p < 0.01). Results of our study also indicated higher serum total triglyceride, total cholesterol and VLDL levels in iron deficient patients than the healthy controls. Regression analyses indicated a negative correlation between serum free carnitine and total triglyceride levels in iron deficient patients. This study confirms that iron deficiency anemia may be linked to the endogenous carnitine synthesis in pediatric age group, and thus hyperlipidemia appears to be a risk factor for premature cardiovascular diseases.

Seroprevalence of cytomegalovirus infection among children and females in Ankara, Turkey, 1995.

BACKGROUND: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most frequent known cause of congenital viral infections in humans. Cytomegalovirus is endemic throughout the world, affecting most of the population where the seroprevalence of CMV IgG is known to vary among countries. METHODS: The present study was designed to show the prevalence of CMV antibodies among children aged 1 day to 15 years and women of child-bearing age in Ankara, Turkey. Antibodies to CMV were analyzed in serum samples of 318 children and 745 women using a passive particle-agglutination test. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of CMV antibodies was 90.6% among children and 99% among women aged 15-49 years. The difference between stratified age groups was not statistically significant (chi 2 = 4.92, P = 0.177) in either children or females. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings confirm that CMV is very prevalent in Turkey and is at the higher end of worldwide ranges. Using the results of the present study, the transmission mode of CMV infection and the risk for congenital CMV infection are discussed. We have come to the conclusion that the risk of fetal infection in Turkey cannot be predicted; however, most CMV infections in the first year of life are transmitted from mother to infant and this is the main source of infection in Turkey.

Heights and weights of primary school children of different social background in Ankara, Turkey.

A cross-sectional anthropometric survey was carried out in a low socio-economic and high socio-economic region of Ankara, Turkey, to measure the weights and heights of school children. The study group consisted of 5289 children between the ages of 5 and 11 years. Both boys and girls from the high socio-economic group had superior body measurements compared to those of the low socio-economic group. The difference between the mean weight for age values of two groups was statistically significant (P < 0.05), whereas no statistically significant difference was found on the basis of height for age values among all age groups. To make a comparison both with National Centre for Health Statistics and World Health Organisation (NCHS-WHO) standards and Turkish standards we used the data from high socio-economic group only. Our results showed that the mean height and weight values of boys and girls were higher than the 50th centile height and weight values of NCHS-WHO standards. Almost 25 years have passed since the measurements of Turkish standards were taken. The height differences were in the range of 0.24-1.51 cm/decade, with a mean value of 0.96 cm/ decade. These results led us to conclude that, local/regional standards for height and weight are needed, and repeated assessments are useful for follow-up of populations.